Stupid and Angry

I, like most people who did not vote for Donald Trump, have had a difficult time understanding why seemingly normal people would vote for an obvious fraud and con man. There is no doubt that many were swayed by his racism. They saw in him the same feelings they had. But, not all Trump voters were racists. So what was it? Yesterday I got slapped in the face by reality while waiting for my order of half a rack of ribs, at Mickey's in Tinley Park. I was standing there when a man walked in wearing a shirt with the word 'Panduit' on it. I laughed to myself because I used to work at Panduit. They made cable ties for electrical systems. The product was used in computers and other devices. Now they use them for that and police departments use them as cheap handcuffs.

"Panduit, I used to work there."

"Really, what position did you have?"

"I was an injection mold operator. I got fired in 1970."

"What, why did you get fired? That was a great job."

"Yep, two hundred dollars a week was very good pay in 1970. Turned out that I required too many sick days. So they fired me."

"Sick days?"

"Also known as party time. I liked to smoke a little pot and party instead of going to work."
The night I lost that job, I was out on the factory floor when the foreman came over and told me they needed to see me up in the office. The office had big windows that looked out over the all the machines and all the guys I worked with. Everybody saw me get fired. 
"I imagine that job has been automated by now." I said to the Panduit guy.

"Yes, it's automated but there isn't any production here. That's all done in Costa Rica."

For a moment I felt like every other angry old man who probably voted for Trump. They sent my job to Costa Rica. A high paying job that I got right out of high school was now gone, gone to another country. One of those shithole countries. That's why people voted the way they did. Donald Trump was going to bring all those jobs back to the United States. The trouble is, it isn't going to happen. Trump is a con man, a bullshit artist who fooled a lot of voters into believing those jobs could return. Instead of looking to the future and investing in the education of our people, investing in infrastructure for American businesses, Trump played on the nostalgia of a time that will never come back.

The guy from Panduit then asked me, "So you got fired because you were...."

Before he could say it, I did "Young and stupid."

The only thing worse than young and stupid is old and angry.